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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

F4U-1A Corsair Tamiya 1/32


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I asked about it, some of you said yes, so here it starts, I will bore you with another build of Tamiya's well famed Corsair. You think easy peasy, but no, having maybe the closest to perfection plastic kit at hands, I'm not allowed to fail. Subpar kits are where you can shine, but with this it's expected. Being like it is, I just felt the urge to build another Corsair, after having built the Birdcage one as my first plane kit, re-entering the hobby, when it came out. 
I had so much fun with the F4U-1 by the time, that I knew, there had to be another. The Birdcage was enhanced with Brassin cockpit engine and wheels, lots of PE, SAC undercarriage and Maketar masks for the markings.
The F4U-1 will be mostly oob, with the exception of HGW belts, Brassin wheels and maybe a Yahu dashboard. I will use AK real colors and markings and stencils masked with 1ManArmy masks.

Cheers Rob

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I was not lazy over the last days and cleaned all the cockpit and tail section parts, prepared them for painting and got the first interior colors on. I used interior green from AK's Real Color range and added Tamiya LP semi gloss black. Now it's about detail painting all the tiny bits, knobs and levers.

I bought a Yahu IP, but will build up the kit version too and will compare, which one I will use.

I thought the magnifying effect of the clear part is a bit to strong and therefore sanded down the bulged front side of the clear part with 2000, 4000 and 8000 grid sand paper.

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And then used the Tamiya polishing pastes to get the glass nice and shiny. After painting the IP itself, I will show you the comparison between this and the Yahu IP.

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Cheers Rob

 

 

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You have to hand it to Tamiya, the breakdown of the complicate cockpit is a masterpiece and I don't know, why I used the Brassin substitute on my last Corsair build. This incarnation is well detailed and broke down, that it's easy to paint.

That's exactly what I did, painting. All the cockpit parts were sprayed in their base colors, mainly AK' interior green and Tamiya's LP semi gloss black and then detail painted, mostly by brush. There are tons of little knobs and switches, where my sable brushes worked very well. All black parts received a treatment with iron pigment, applied with a large dry brush and then rubbed with pigments on the fingers, followed be AK dark aluminum True wax, applied with a toothpick for a light chipping.

The IP looks now like this and I will use my painted one, because it integrates better and I found no yellow bezels on my reference pics. Sanding and polishing the clear part, helped to reduce the magnifying effect to an acceptable level. Below is the Yahu IP for comparison.

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Parts airbrushed in interior green got a brown panel liner treatment, followed by highlighting with a brush and then some of Usch van der Rosten's iron pigments. Again the last step was to apply some scratches and tear with True Metal wax, rubbed in by hand or cotton swab.

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On to the consoles with lots of masking and then detail painting, These multi part affairs are designed utterly genius by Tamiya.

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Next will be some touch ups, the assembly of the prepared parts, to finish the cockpit and applying a final integrating coat of near flat finish.

Cheers Rob

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The cockpit is almost ready with only the leather headrest and messenger bag to add and of course the HGW seatbelts. Everything fits into the fuselage, where I had to do a lot of grinding with my last Corsair and the Brassin cockpit. With the supplied detail, there is no real need for resin substitutes. I'm actually considering, adding some lead wire, but I have to check how much can be seen afterwards.

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Cheers Rob

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1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Very nice cockpit Rob. The Barracuda placards add a lot to the cockpit but they're a pain to apply being so small and so many of them. 

Carl

Agree 100% Carl. They look good but can be a PITA to apply. 🤪

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Thank you ( @Martinnfb, @Peterpools, @JohnB and @BlrwestSiR ) gentlemen, It is truly amazing what can be done oob with these Tamiya Corsairs cockpits. The level of detail and the crispness is very good.
I'm right with Carl and John about the placards. I planned to apply more, even did, but some were blown away by the airbrush while matte coating over. I had only the AirScale placards, where many didn't fit to my photo reference, so I left them off. I was considering buying the Barracuda placards, but that would have taken too much time and I didn't want to start another build.
Having not much luck with decals generally, it might have been a wise move to skip most of the tiny beasts, where silvering is also a problem.

Cheers Rob 

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Rob

Agreed, those tiny little buggers are a pain and do have a tendency to popoff when shooting on the next clear coat. But in the end, oh they look so good. I wish they would be the rub on type, which go on over a flat coat but I'm sure it will never happen and it would most likely have some issues as well.

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Today, I finished the other side of the tub. The HGW belts were a bit fiddly, but nowhere near the Luftwaffe seat belts. Like always, I assembled the parts with the buckles still on the PE fret. The decal silvered and there was nothing I could do about it. Luckily I use masks for the stencils ;).

Cheers Rob

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13 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

I love it, especially the weather fabric. Brilliant!

 

8 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Lovely cockpit work, Rob!

 

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

OMG, does the bulkhead detailing and weathering look fantastic.

Muchas gracias hombres. I want to have a worn, but not overused look with the Corsair. Painting the interior green was done with three different shades of the color along with some brown panel liner. After flat coating all, I applied some Uschi van der Rosten iron pigments, which are among the finest you can get and gave everything a slight metallic sheen, which I really like simulating painted metal. Then some scratches and tearing with AK's True Metal Wax dark aluminum applied with a toothpick finely and then rubbed into the surface with fingers and cotton swabs.

The seat belts were pre crumpled, rolling the paper parts through my fingers and after assembly the received a brown wash, rubbed in with my fingers.

Cheers Rob

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I closed the fuselage, after inserting the finalized cockpit and rear framing. For better alignment of the front structural parts, I glued them to one side of the fuselage and dry fitted the other half and let the glue cure over night, perfect alignment.
I know, the headrest should be black, but I preferred brown, at least for the moment.

That's it for the next two weeks from my side, I'm going on vacation and take only the phone with me. So don't wonder if there may be some occasional likes, but no comments.

Cheers Rob

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